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"Mad Men," AMC's iconic drama about power-hungry ad men (and women!) during traditional marketing's heyday, took the world by storm when it first came out. While the show was on air, '60s fashion was everywhere, cocktail culture had a resurgence and a whole bunch of 18-year-olds suddenly decided to go to school for marketing. And although the final episode of "Mad Men" aired in 2015, it looks like Don Draper still has a hold on us.
Heinz announced this week that the very real company will be borrowing from the fictional show and will be using a campaign designed by Don Draper for Heinz. The ketchup brand didn't end up going for Don's pitch on the show; the execs went with rival Peggy Olson's more straightforward pitch. But now, two years later (or 45 years later, depending on how you look at it), Heinz has realized its mistake in passing up on Don's campaign.
The ads are beautiful in their simplicity. Each one features a photo of a food we love to put ketchup on, accompanied only by the words "Pass the Heinz." As Don himself explains on the show, they are "tantalizingly incomplete. What's missing? One thing. Pass the Heinz." But the pitch falls flat for the fictional Heinz businessmen, who say "it feels like half an ad" because there's no actual product shot. They just don't get Don's genius! Come on, Heinz! It's thought-provoking!
Although Heinz wasn't involved at all with the brand's original cameo on "Mad Men," the brand did have to get permission from Lionsgate producers (the studio behind the drama) to recreate Don's ads. Unfortunately, the fictional Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency apparently wasn't interested in getting back together to pitch the ad again. Instead, the agency David is behind this cheeky recreation.
If you want a real life memento straight from the brain of Don Draper, you'll be able to find the ads in the New York Post and Variety. They will also be prominently displayed on a billboard in New York. And because this is 2017 and things have changed a bit since Don's days in the ad world, the campaign will get an update fit for social media as well.
Or you can just check the three ads out down below!